OFFICIAL Esan Marsters [Discussion]

[fibrodreaming]

I read somewhere that his mother is asian.

 

[happy_tiger]

injured still ….

 

[happy_tiger]

Is Steven at the Saints his brother / relo ??

 

[Yossarian]

Didn’t he play for the Cook Islands?

 

[gallagher]

I read somewhere that his mother is asian

Yeah, I could have just googled it. Mum's asian and Dad has European heritage.
C'mon the aussies, I was never sure who to support in the old format.

 

[Pawsandclaws]

That'd be near enough to qualify 🙂

 

[Guest]

Yep he played well for them too Yoss.

 

[joelw2002]

I completely forgot to vote for the all star teams. But congrats Marsters.

 

[Harvey]

Congratulations to him. You hold your breath when some of your teams big names are selected in these pre-season matches.

 

[tonza]

Is Dane Gagai Maori? I always thought he was Indigenous.

 

[Masterton]

When Esan Marsters left Auckland at the age of 17 with little more than a dream of starring in the NRL in hand, representing his Maori roots wasn't even possible.

The Tigers young gun has quickly transformed for rookie to Kiwi regular and on Friday, he will start in the centres for the New Zealand Maori All Stars.

[
](javascript:void(0)😉

Pride: Esan Marsters.CREDIT:AAP

Given how close Marsters is to his Cook Islands born, Maori raised mother, the match will rival the day he made his New Zealand debut against England last June.

"It’s up there with making my Kiwi debut," Marsters said. "It’s not every day you get to experience new things so to come and play with some of the good players from each individual club makes it extra special.

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"For myself it is about learning who I am, where I come from and gaining new experience.

"I think this game is going to go so far and if we can build on this hopefully it keeps building in the years coming."

Marsters' mother and fiance will be among the AAMI Park crowd on Friday and the former may shed a tear when the teams take to the field.

There were emotional scenes at the family home when Marsters left Auckland almost five years ago to chase his NRL dream and while she may be his biggest critic, there is no doubting she remains his number one fan.

"Growing up in a Cook Island family and being raised by a Maori one as well - it’s a special one - there were a few tears there," Marsters said of the moment he told his mother he'd been picked.

"She gave me a call before I came into camp and I know she will be supporting me no matter what.

"Hopefully I play well on Friday so she doesn’t give me a hiding after the game."

Hiding or not, Marsters will be integral to the Tigers' title hopes this season.

He played in all of the club's 24 matches last year and while that's almost three times as many as new captain Moses Mbye featured in, the 22-year-old threw his full support behind his new skipper.

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"He’s been massive for us," Marsters said. "To have someone there that will play the whole year will be cool.

"A lot of people are saying he’s only played nine games for the club but the stuff he has done off-season for us… he’s been really good.

"I’m happy he’s the captain - hopefully this year we can go well and play finals footy. I think we have the right guy leading us."

Mbye will fill one of the critical spine positions but who will wear the No. 6 jersey at Wests remains a mystery.

Tigers coach Michael McGuire will use the team's only trial - against the Warriors in New Zealand on March 2 - to determine who deserves first crack as the team's starting five-eighth.

Josh Reynolds and Benji Marshall can't be split on their pre-season work and are both fit and firing, leaving McGuire with a welcome selection headache.

Marsters doesn't mind either way, labelling the pair "special" when pressed on the matter.

"Both of them have been training really well," he said.

"They’re both special players so it will be interesting to see who I’m running around with this year."

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/nrl/marsters-major-gamble-pays-off-for-maoris-20190213-p50xlh.html

 

[Guest]

Marked man Marsters can't afford to relax for a moment

Tanisha Stanton NRL.com Reporter

Thu 28 Mar 2019, 03:01 PM

Esan Marsters is the first to admit he can't rest on his laurels this season, knowing he has a target on his back after his break-out season in 2018.

After two games Marsters is already feeling the heat from rivals, who are mindful of the fact he was the only centre in the NRL to reach 3,000 run metres and 49 offloads last year, along with being the Wests Tigers' leading point-scorer.

The Kiwi international told NRL.com that the amount of talent waiting to get a start and coach Michael Maguire's ruthless nature each week means he can never drop his guard.

"It's been a new challenge for me this year. With just two rounds gone I feel like I've been marked a bit harder than I was last year," Marsters said.

"It's also been a tough challenge fighting for our positions each week and having to perform when we get the opportunity.

"Each week at training as well our oppose sessions are tough and there's some really healthy competition there that has definitely lifted the standard in the squad.

"Each and every one of us want to make sure we don't want to have a bad game, especially under Madge (Maguire)."

The likes of Josh Reynolds, Paul Momirovski, Matt Eisenhuth and Chris McQueen, who were named as the reserves this weekend, have been unable to establish regular first-grade spots, while David Nofaluma and Chris Lawrence are still to come back from injury.

Wests Tigers winger Corey Thompson said competition for spots was intensely competitive but always friendly.

He said the players have been supportive of each other regardless of who is selected.

"If you are willing to improve each week or put in a good performance then there are plenty of boys that want that spot," Thompson said.

"But in saying that the boys who aren't playing are really supportive with the team that gets picked.

"Even through they're not in the team they're striving to make the team better, which is a real selfless act. They're watching from the reserve grade and they're tipping us up if there's areas we can work on."

With the Canterbury Bulldogs adding five new faces to Sunday's line-up, Thompson expects the Bulldogs to come out guns blazing at Campbelltown Stadium after their poor start to the season.

"The Bulldogs would be pissed off and disappointed with how they played over the first two rounds so they're going to come out firing," he said.

"They've got a great team on paper - they started strong against Parramatta and it was only a couple of errors that got the Eels back into the game.

"We've got to be ready for them - they're going to come out for the whole 80 minutes wanting to prove a point so we need to just stick to our game plan.

"All the boys they have coming in are going to enthusiastic and will want to prove their spot."

 

[TheDaBoss]

Nice masters, been playing good.

Now u need to work on those sidelinr conversions

 

[Tiger_Fan18]

He's really letting us down with his gk duties. Would definitely recommend changing goal kicking duties to Mbye. Mbye used to kick great for the dogs… Marsters just useless. Misses in front.... Very poor

Thoughts??

 

[851]

I was saying this all last year as well and got shouted down, he misses easy conversions all to often

 

[avocadoontoast]

Absolutely. He can’t be our long term option if we have any hope of playing finals footy. Gun player but very average kicker.

 

[NJLM78]

10m either side of the goal posts is almost no chance. The ball goes way to high and shapes away at end. He must hit them alright at training though because he keeps the job every week.

 

[jadtiger]

The problem is we have nobody better at the club to kick goals, M'bye is no better.We need to sign an ok player who can kick 80% the problem is who and where is he

 

[GNR4LIFE]

It was a massive momentum killer. 22-12 with 15 to go, would have made a massive difference psychologically as opposed to 22-8\. It’s all hearsay, but we could have run them down.

 

[1eyedmel]

Sign Rhyse Martin.